Soaked Through
On a dark night.
Only faint sounds quietly echoed in front of the convenience store.
Piuk.
Piuk.
Piuk.
An outdoor rubber pool.
It was the sound of a pump filling it with air.
The one working the foot pump with tireless enthusiasm was A-Young. She had come out of the rest area wearing a loose white T-shirt. Underneath, she was still in the swimsuit she had put on earlier.
...
I never imagined she’d bring a pool and ask us to play in it.
When we’d first met just now, A-Young had said, cheeks slightly pink,
-Ah... th-there’s no way I overdid it with the swimsuit, right? It’s a little, um... too much to look at, isn’t it?
...
She had gently covered her pale body with both hands.
Her slightly damp yellow hair flowed down like waves beneath a high cliff. The delicately parted strands crossed the steep slope of her shoulders and met the yellow sea of the swimsuit.
The curves it drew were boldly...
Right around then, I had turned my head and said,
-If this is making you uncomfortable, A-Young, you should wear something else.
-I-it doesn’t suit me...?
...
I had shaken my head.
A-Young had nodded, still blushing. Then, without another word, she had pulled the loose shirt over herself and come back out. Since then, she had been pumping air into the outdoor pool she’d brought with her.
Now, wearing the white shirt with a kind of newfound confidence, A-Young stomped on the pump with gusto. With every step, the yellow outdoor pool shuddered and came alive again.
Piuk.
Piuk.
Piuk.
“Hup! Hup!”
...
Piuk.
Piuk.
Piuk.
“Hrrya! Hrrya!”
...
In the end, I said to A-Young,
“...I’ll help you.”
“Huh? Ah, no! It’s fine. I can do it.”
“Is that so.”
“Yes, this is all part of my plan.”
“Your plan...”
“So just watch. President...nim!”
She emphasized each syllable of the last word.
A-Young smiled brightly with her back to the convenience store.
...
The light from the quiet convenience store was bright.
It spilled over A-Young’s back. And so, in that backlight, the yellow bikini beneath the loose shirt showed through again.
Like gold hidden in white mist.
The shirt swayed like a curtain, and beneath its hazy outline, yellow shimmered through. The slender line of her legs and the soft curves hidden inside took on the shape of shadows, shyly revealing themselves.
Like the lead character in a shadow puppet play.
She’d definitely covered herself.
And yet, somehow, everything was still visible...
...
So I looked away.
Then I thought about something else.
...
A-Young hummed as she kept working the pump.
Piuk.
Piuk.
Piuk.
...
Listening to that steady rhythm, I eventually sat down at an outdoor table and checked my phone. There were some unsettling numbers on the screen. The investment profits I had earned all week.
Like money flowing through multiple factories, it had all been funneled neatly into the accounts I’d allocated to various stocks.
Because I’d diversified the accounts, I had to bounce around between several securities firms.
I settled the results of my investments.
Principal: 86.6 billion won
Average return: 14%
The result was...
Balance: 98.6 billion won
...
Of course, that still wasn’t the final amount.
It was only what had been settled at Friday’s market close. If I checked the remaining day trades and products, another 2 billion would be added on top of that.
In other words,
I had already crossed 100 billion won.
And that in the first week of June.
...
It wasn’t as if I had never made this much before.
If anything, this was a lower return than the loop where I’d tried to force my way to 1 trillion won. But that time and this time were different. Unlike then, this money had been earned in a completely separate market from the underworld finance I’d used before. It was safe money.
Now that I had responsibilities on my back,
I couldn’t afford to throw around reckless moves like that.
No matter how much of a foreign investor Bigman was, stirring up someone else’s underground financial world could still cause problems...
Besides, I was now properly maintaining my credibility as an “economist” of sorts. So the scary big brothers beyond Yeouido weren’t turning their heads and going, “What the hell is this guy?”
I wasn’t some unemployed white-collar drifter who’d appeared out of nowhere. I was just the same guy who had always made good money, still making good money. That kind of return was allowed for a player the market had already recognized.
And how to spend this money had already been decided.
...
I took my eyes off the phone.
I looked up at the stars hanging over the dark night sky. They were faintly visible even beyond the neon glow of the signs. They were shining desperately in the darkness.
Maybe
by the same number as the lights I wanted to protect.
By the same number as the connections Bigman had brought into being.
...
Emotion grows within structure.
But the thing that can keep structure standing is money.
So I calculated the cost of the “plan” I would use to protect the stars. To prepare for the “incident” that arrived with July and drove so many people into the black sea.
...
At the very least, I should always leave 50 billion won untouched. Without even that much, this loop would just be an ark carrying RD and ABCD and no one else.
Even if I couldn’t find the bracelet.
I wanted to promise the people who had stayed with me a future better than the last loop’s.
-Let’s win this together!
Because I promised.
And then 30 billion for investment capital. To keep the Big Plan growing like a storm, I needed to keep that much money turning over.
In this loop, there are absurdly many ways to make money, so 30 billion should be enough to scale it up.
Most of the uses were already decided.
As a result, out of the 100 billion, 80 billion couldn’t be touched carelessly.
Then the remaining 20 billion...
“Oppa!”
“!”
I looked up.
A-Young, who had been pumping away a moment ago, was now pointing excitedly at something while looking off in that direction. I turned my head and saw Do-Dam coming up from below the hill.
She had a tired expression and a mask on, and she was trudging uphill in shorts and a T-shirt.
Do-Dam waved when she saw me. Then, in a voice rough and papery in a way it usually wasn’t, she spoke.
“Yo, long time no see...”
“Do-Dam!”
“Miss Do-Dam. Did you already go to the hospital?”
...
Do-Dam nodded.
I said,
“Did you come here for something?”
...
Do-Dam shook her head. Then she took out her phone and tapped quickly with her fingers. A moment later, a message arrived on mine.
“I see. You must have had a hard time.”
“Still, as champion, you saw it through to the very end, didn’t you? That alone means you did everything you were supposed to do. You stayed with the people who took part in your dream until the very end.”
...
Do-Dam froze. Then she glanced sideways, scratched her cheek beneath the mask, and I could tell even from just her eyes that she was pleased by what I’d said.
She’d called herself the champion all that time, and now that someone was actually acknowledging it, she’s embarrassed?
Before long, she answered in that rough voice again.
“Th-thanks...”
“Not at all. It was a fine match. And a fine dream.”
...
Do-Dam smiled without making a sound.
It was the relieved smile of a girl who had achieved a dream she’d carried in her heart since childhood. Even in the dark night, it shone brilliantly.
With that hoarse voice of hers, she said again,
“Th-anks...”
“Not at all.”
While that exchange was going on,
A-Young, who had somehow finished setting up the pool, came over. Then she looked at Do-Dam and smiled brightly. Her smile, too, gleamed in the dark.
A-Young said,
“So you’re sleeping over here?”
...
Do-Dam nodded.
A-Young held both of Do-Dam’s hands tightly.
“Okay, heehee. Let’s stay together.”
...
Relief and familiarity
and the quiet of night
...
...
Do-Dam opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something. But then she suddenly fixed her gaze somewhere else. At the hem of A-Young’s loose shirt, toward the path leading down to her legs.
“Eeeh...?”
To be precise, it was the groin.
On top of A-Young’s pure white thighs,
there was no sense of the clothing that ought to have been there.
...
I guess Do-Dam noticed too.
Do-Dam tilted her head.
Something about the end of her gaze seemed off. And A-Young didn’t seem to notice what that oddity was.
...
?
Do-Dam took out her phone and tapped it. Then she held it out toward A-Young.
“?”
Maybe A-Young hadn’t understood the point of the question, or maybe she was just reacting honestly to the answer... Either way, she gave the kind of reply that was perfect for creating a misunderstanding.
“Yep! It’s a shirt!”
Then she lifted the hem of the shirt. Naturally, what was underneath was not shorts, but the bottom half of a yellow swimsuit.
To someone who didn’t know what was going on,
it was exactly the kind of thing that could be mistaken for underwear.
A small yellow triangle stood out against her pale legs, set a little apart left and right. Its presence settled over the scene like heavy silence.
...
...
...
Do-Dam quietly turned her body away. Then she tried to go back down the hill. Her cheeks and the tops of her ears, visible above the mask, were red enough to show even in the darkness.
She muttered softly,
“S-sorry for interrupting...”
“Not at all.”
“Please, continue enjoying yourselves...”
“Not at all.”
“I really had no sense...”
“Not at all.”
A-Young grabbed Do-Dam by the arm. Then she tilted her head and said,
“Aren’t you staying with us?”
“W-what!?”
Do-Dam’s face turned red as if it might burst. Then she shook her head over and over again. Her bob cut flailed wildly like a white flag from a defeated army.
“N-no, no, no, no, no...”
“Why not? Let’s play together. We’re all set up already. We just need to put the water in. Heehee, it’ll be more fun with three people!”
“Aki-chan is surprisingly bold...?”
Still trapped by A-Young’s grip, Do-Dam shot me a look pleading for salvation. Inside those violently trembling eyes was every possible form of fear and shock.
She was saying with her eyes,
H-help me, boss...!
...
I turned my head away. Then I looked up at the night sky.
The stars were still shining.
*
A little later,
Do-Dam let out a sigh and muttered under her breath. She had taken off her socks and was now sitting beside me and A-Young, both of us with our feet in the outdoor pool.
“You could’ve just said it was water play from the start.”
“Heehee, sorry... I thought you’d already seen the pool.”
...
Do-Dam seemed about to say something, but maybe her throat hurt, because she coughed a few times instead. Then she took out her phone and tapped quickly.
“!”
A-Young nodded.
“Yeah, hehe... If we all do water play like this, I thought I’d be able to get a feel for what the invited fans would experience. And how to make it even more fun.”
“So you’re planning a water park event?”
“Huh? Um... more like something smaller...”
A-Young moved her legs a little and splashed the water. Her tiny white toes left ripples behind before disappearing beneath the surface again.
“Something where people gather like this and can splash around. And with a big screen set up nearby too. Wouldn’t everyone have fun that way?”
...
...
Do-Dam said quietly,
“That’s a pretty extrovert kind of event.”
“Extrovert...?”
“Anyway, whatever.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you already have a place lined up? If you’re doing something like that, you’d need to rent out at least some kind of pool. And the safety prep would have to be insanely strict.”
“Hmm, is that so? Would 1 billion won be hard...”
“1 billion. Wow. Now I’ve got nothing to say. If it’s the 1 billion won Bigman gave you, maybe it could work.”
“Hmm... really...?”
“Honestly, I don’t really know either.”
Do-Dam flicked some water toward A-Young, who was still thinking. The droplets she sent flying landed on the most prominent point beneath the white shirt.
And when the droplets struck,
they peeled away some of the thick mist hanging over her.
The yellow hidden behind it revealed itself.
A-Young flinched.
“Hyah!?”
...
Do-Dam muttered in exhausted disbelief.
“Wow, it’s huge as hell for real...”
...
I pretended I hadn’t heard that. Then I quietly revised what the remaining 20 billion would be used for.
---